Elaphrosaurus

Elaphrosaurus is a genus of ceratosaurian theropod dinosaur that lived approximately 155 to 145 million years ago during the Late Jurassic Period in what is now Tanzania in Africa. Elaphrosaurus was a medium-sized but lightly built member of the group that could grow up to 6.2 m (20 ft) long. Morphologically, this dinosaur is significant in two ways. Firstly, it has a relatively long body but is very shallow-chested for a theropod of its size. Secondly, it has very short hindlimbs in comparison with its body. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that this genus is likely a ceratosaur. Earlier suggestions that it is a late surviving coelophysoid have been examined but generally dismissed. Elaphrosaurus is currently believed to be a very close relative of Limusaurus, an unusual beaked ceratosaurian which may have been either herbivorous or omnivorous.

Elaphrosaurus

Etemenanki3 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
ElaphrosaurinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Theropoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda
Length
6.2 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 48 million years on record.

The record covers at least 149.2 Mya to 100.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 154.8 Mya to 93.9 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 3 of 4 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 0 of 4 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 1 of 4 occurrencesLate Cretaceous156–154 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences154–152 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences152–150 Mya — about 2 occurrences150–148 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences101–99 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences99–97 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences97–95 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences95–93 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences149.2 Mya100.5 Mya156 Mya93 Mya

4 occurrences of Elaphrosaurus on record, most of them in the Late Jurassic. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

4 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

2 formations

Tendaguru — 9.68°S, 39.22°EMorrison — 44.09°N, 106.78°W

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The named rock units Elaphrosaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Elaphrosaurus and its relatives

Late Jurassic

Where Elaphrosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

30 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Elaphrosaurus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

4 references

Each of the 4 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Elaphrosaurus

Credit
Etemenanki3
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Elaphrosaurus was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itElaphrosaurinae through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Janensch 1920